# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Joshua Nevett and Judith Moritz and Daniel Wittenberg

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Andy Burnham to give regional mayors share of income tax

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The prime minister says the move will give power to “every postcode” but critics say the plans lack detail.

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Conservatives

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Grant Shapps blocked from standing again for the Conservatives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kemi Badenoch tells the BBC she leads a “new party full of new people” as ex-MP is rejected as a candidate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who is Andy Burnham? Ex-Manchester mayor who wants to lead the country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The outgoing Greater Manchester mayor is lining up a third attempt to be Labour leader following his return to Westminster.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Devolution plans strengthen case for written UK constitution, says Burnham

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PM argues for codified model of decentralisation that would fundamentally change centuries-old workings of state

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nottingham families in largest NHS maternity review tell stories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Families explain how they became part of the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership in six charts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
BBC Verify looks at the record of Sir Keir’s time in government in six key areas since he took office in July 2024.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s resignation speech in full

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sir Keir announces he will be step down as Labour leader and PM in a Downing Street address.

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Swiss vote against proposal to cap population at 10 million

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nearly 55% of participants voted against the proposal to cap population by cutting migration, results show.

# data[].attributes.body
Referendum case study

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Swiss wait to hear result of ballot on capping population at 10 million

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If successful, the vote would require the government to put restrictions in place to limit the population by 2050

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Healey’s shock resignation over defence plan pushes Starmer to brink

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Former defence secretary accuses PM of putting UK’s security at risk at a time of growing international threats

# data[].attributes.body
Reform outguns the other parties

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reform UK raising millions more than other parties, donation figures show

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Farage’s party brings in £9m largely from crypto billionaires in three months, more than twice that of Labour and Tories

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Louis' case study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Acting attorney general says Trump’s $1.8bn ‘anti-weaponization’ fund is scrapped

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
However, Todd Blanche said the IRS will still be prohibited from auditing Donald Trump, his family and related entities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Andy Burnham to back electoral reform if he becomes prime minister

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate wants to make politics ‘less point-scoring, more problem-solving’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A third of Britons believe they have changed social class, survey finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
‘Polyclass’ of 6 million people consider themselves to belong to more than one social category, researchers say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Michael Goodier and Carmen Aguilar García and Alexandra Topping and Tural Ahmedzade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What’s behind surge in support for Reform and Greens across England? Five key takeaways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Significant gains this week lay bare an increasingly fragmented political system

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How the winner-takes-all voting system has turned on Labour and the Tories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The first-past-the-post system favoured Reform in this English local elections

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How liberals lost the fight | The News Agents

# data[].attributes.body
BBC interview - interesting comments on the role of the PM, party unity and key events from his career.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
“It's not a game show” | Former Prime Minister Sir John Major on the current state of UK politics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Chris Mason: Elections this week a smorgasbord of competitiveness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The scale of these elections looks set to vividly expose the breadth of Labour’s vulnerabilities, Chris Mason writes.

# data[].attributes.headline
Representation in local elections (1/5/26)

# data[].attributes.subject
Representation in local elections (1/5/26)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nearly twice as many men as women standing in May elections in UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exclusive: women ‘massively underrepresented’ in next week’s local and devolved elections, campaigners say

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Comments from former PM

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UK should not keep changing prime ministers, warns John Major

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The former Tory PM tells the BBC political leaders are letting young people down by failing tackle long-term problems.

# data[].attributes.body
Should a Citizens Assembly be convened?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Guardian view on assisted dying reform: now try a citizens’ assembly | Editorial

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Editorial: Parliament’s failure to change the law on a difficult issue should be the spur to democratic innovation

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Is housing now a key factor?

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Over the week to come, journalists will repeat three things until they, and you, are sick: that local elections fall next Thursday; that the results will decide the fate of Keir Starmer; and that he is set to do badly. But just how badly, and where? Last week, Starmer's own party dropped a big clue.

The most popular politician in Britain came down from Manchester to spend the whole day campaigning in London. As Andy Burnham went from Haringey to Brixton, he rallied Labour's footsoldiers. "Don't go into the last two weeks with your shoulders down," he told them. "Get your shoulders up."

"Ah," wrote lobby reporters, "now the King of the North is making incursions down south, such is his ambition." But his visit is more telling than that, and more profound in its implications.

First, London usually exports its Labour activists, loading them in to people carriers to take the good news of Fabianism to those heathens outside the M25. Now it is the capital sending for outside reinforcement. Second, consider Burnham's itinerary. Lambeth, Haringey, Southwark: these rank among the reddest patches of the UK's entire electoral map. The country's last bastion of Labour support, London, is starting to collapse.

Even as they knock on doors and post leaflets ahead of next Thursday, Labour people have already written off whole swathes of the country. They know they'll get smashed in Scotland and Wales, where in the assembly elections the governing party will be battling simply not to lose too badly. In truth, the death of Labour Wales and Scotland began many years ago, however late Westminster was in waking up. But London is a different story; even in the wipeout of 2019 it remained deep red.

In every set of council elections over the past two decades, Labour has gained seats. Now the party faces what pollsters project will be its worst results there in 50 years. One council leader considers Thursday to be "the biggest fight of my political life". The Greens may well win the mayoralities of Lewisham and Hackney and are optimistic about dislodging a number of inner-city councils from Labour control. Since London makes up more than a third of the council seats being contested, Labour's retreat on its home turf will be one of the biggest stories of next weekend.

The impact of this on a party already in sharp decline is hard to overstate. London is where Keir Starmer, David Lammy and Wes Streeting have seats; cue endless graphics showing how bad the humiliation each man faces in any general election. But a council position in the capital also studs the CVs of vast numbers of the parliamentary Labour party. As Margaret Hodge said, "Inner London attracts sad politicos who want to become MPs," and she should know: she led Islington council for most of the 1980s.

The Greens look set to bloody Labour Southwark and Lambeth: the training ground of Morgan McSweeney, Steve Reed, Ali McGovern and much of the rest of the faction that runs the Westminster party.

The press will probably write this up as the work of Magic Zack Polanski, doing to the Greens' vote share what he promised years ago to do to women's boobs. But this is to miss a much more interesting truth about the politics of Red London. Because as one senior Labour councillor put it to me: "All our chickens are coming home to roost."

When I went out canvassing with the Greens in Lewisham a few weeks ago, I saw how voters would say they couldn't vote for a party complicit in the destruction of Gaza, or that spouted Faragisms about immigration. In a city in which almost half the people are from ethnic minorities, holding such policies is fatal, because they show the contempt Starmer and his team have for the very voters who they expect to turn out for them. The geniuses in No 10 may have thought they were playing good politics, and chasing "hero voters". But in the eyes of a significant chunk of the electorate they have shown themselves to have rotten morals, and it is not clear to me, at least, how any leader recovers from that.

There is one more bruise the Greens in London keep punching, especially intriguing because it is about policy. Front and centre of their campaign is the need for a fair housing system. The great irony here is that it is through the provision of council housing that Labour literally built its London voter base. Across Islington, Southwark, Camden, it threw up housing estates. The deal it offered working-class Londoners was simple: back us and we'll house you. And Labour came through on its side of the bargain. As Paul Watt shows in Estate Regeneration and its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London, by the early 1980s the capital had more public housing than half the entire total in the US.

What happened next? Margaret Thatcher and right to buy, you might say. But the story is a little more complex, because that narrative doesn't take into account the suicidal complicity of Labour. In the decade of Thatcher from 1980 to 1990, Watt shows, London still built nearly 52,000 council homes. In the decade of Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007, only 280 went up. The wholesale handing of estates from council to housing associations was far larger under Blair than it ever was under the Tories. The gentrification battles of the 2010s were about inner-London Labour authorities passing council houses to private developers, claiming they had no other option. Again, the Greens are using precisely those stories about Woodberry Down and the Heygate as reasons not to vote Labour.

How the party enacts these pledges from its new position as London's main opposition is a big question, but what's undeniable is the support it is drawing. The Greens now have about 225,000 members, and its youth wing alone is almost as big as Ed Davey's entire Liberal Democrats. But it has an easy target in a Labour party that has the triple lock of bossing London local authorities, City Hall and Westminster, and still claims it can't do all that much about the housing crisis, apart from wait for the market to provide more homes. The renters' rights that come into effect on Friday are a great example: tenants can no longer be summarily evicted from their homes, but they can still be priced out at the next rent increase.

The weekend after next, senior Labour figures will ask themselves why they have done so badly in London. They can start by taking a look in the mirror, because the answer is: them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Labour is facing wipeout in its final stronghold. Why? It's housing, housing, housing | Aditya Chakrabortty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the 1980s, Labour-controlled London built 52,000 council homes. During the Tony Blair decade, just 280. It's brought this local-election catastrophe on itself, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

# data[].attributes.body
Should Starmer bring back Angela Rayner?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Peter Walker and Aletha Adu and Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Could Starmer bring back Rayner to steady ship – and would she get onboard?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Former deputy PM has walked a line between loyalty and interventionism since resigning last September

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Which elections are taking place in England, Scotland and Wales on 7 May?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Millions will vote in parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales, and local elections in England.

# data[].attributes.body
Birmingham - Labour in trouble?

# data[].attributes.headline
Civil liberties and social media (30/4/26)

# data[].attributes.subject
Civil liberties and social media (30/4/26)

# data[].attributes.body
Should social media be restricted for under 16s?

# data[].attributes.headline
Should the PM reshuffle the cabinet? (30/4/26)

# data[].attributes.subject
Should the PM reshuffle the cabinet? (30/4/26)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Starmer sees off Mandelson inquiry call - but he doesn’t escape unscathed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
No 10 has expended considerable political capital in keeping Labour MPs onside over the Mandelson vetting row.

# data[].attributes.body
Hereditary Peers - the end

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hereditary peers’ last hurrah as 700-year-old system abolished

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It comes after legislation to remove their right to sit in the upper chamber passed last month.

# data[].attributes.body
Farage reported

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nigel Farage received £5m from donor Christopher Harborne before he became an MP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Reform leader says the gift was for his personal security - but opponents say he should have declared it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, to be questioned by MPs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exclusive: McSweeney summoned by foreign affairs select committee in rare step, as Mandelson vetting row continues

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Keir Starmer did not know Mandelson failed vetting, government says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A decision to go against the recommendation of the vetting agency was taken by officials in the Foreign Office, spokesperson says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
MPs vote against social media ban for under-16s a second time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Commons rejects proposal by 256 to 150 to side with government on plan to tackle online harms affecting children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Group of Labour MPs proposes new policies to beat rightwing populism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Policies include a Swiss-style EU deal, lower electricity prices and reduced dependence on the US

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK could adopt EU single market rules under new legislation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sir Keir Starmer is planning a law which will mean that the UK government can adopt EU single market rules, without them being voted on in Parliament.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Starmer to temporarily ban crypto donations to UK parties

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ministers are also capping donations of British citizens living abroad, in response to a review.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK borrowing costs hit highest level since 2008 financial crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The interest rate on government debt is climbing over fears about inflation, interest rates, and public spending, experts have said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ban corporate donations to UK political parties to protect elections, says thinktank

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CenTax warns bill under debate in parliament has ‘easily exploitable’ loopholes and will not prevent foreign interference

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Faisal Islam, Mitchell Labiak, Rachel Clun

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mayors to gain more spending power under Reeves tax plans

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Chancellor has set out the government’s plan for economic growth, which also includes closer ties to the EU.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Doomed hereditary peers spy chance to stay in the Lords

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Tories are deciding which hereditary peers to keep after being offered 15 seats in a compromise deal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unite announces cut to Labour membership fees by £580,000

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
UK union cutting contributions as talks with Birmingham council fail to reach resolution over bin strike

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hereditary peers to lose their seats in the House of Lords

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Upper chamber accepts final draft of bill, which offers life peerages to some of those who would otherwise be removed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Leak from secret UK meeting about US attacks on Iran a travesty, says Lammy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Justice secretary calls for inquiry into reports of cabinet splits at national security council over use of British bases

# data[].attributes.body
Farage alleges fraud

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nigel Farage calls for changes to election voting rules

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Reform UK leader says postal voting should be restricted to those with a ‘valid reason’.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
May 2026 elections: Weekend voting to be piloted in the UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Findings from the experiment will be published later this year and inform future electoral reform.

# data[].attributes.body
Rises above 200,000

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Green party membership in UK passes 200,000 after byelection victory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Party leader Zack Polanski says surge in numbers ‘proves that the future of progressive politics belongs to the Greens’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why have efforts to bring in assisted dying law been thwarted?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How has legislation backed by MPs failed to clear the House of Lords? And what will happen now?

# data[].attributes.body
Useful case study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Disinformation was ‘central accelerant’ in Leicester Hindu-Muslim clashes, inquiry finds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Report into ‘unprecedented’ violence between members of two communities in 2022 calls for action on communalism

# data[].attributes.body
Recommended on Channel 4

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Tony Blair Story review – some rigorous analysis of his time in office might have been nice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This documentary talks to the ex-PM, his family and colleagues to find out what he’s like. It’s sadly lacking in the granular detail that would really put his actions under the microscope

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As the party with the largest number of MPs behind Labour, the Conservatives are the official opposition with a shadow cabinet mirroring government ministers.

However, with Reform consistently leading in national opinion polls since last spring, Farage said it was time to "broaden the party" and put people in "shadow positions" to counter claims Reform was "a one-man band".

Jenrick is a former housing secretary, and has held ministerial roles at the Home Office and health department when the Conservatives were in government. He also held a junior Treasury role as exchequer secretary under Theresa May.

Zia Yusuf, currently Reform's head of policy, was announced as the party's lead on home affairs, with a focus on cutting legal and illegal immigration.

Before Jenrick's defection, both Tice and Yusuf had been considered potential chancellors in a future Reform government.

However, Tice, whom Farage said would also become deputy prime minister if Reform won power, insisted "we're all delighted" with the jobs given.

Tice said he would focus on using oil and gas to help boost economic growth, while abandoning net zero targets.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reform UK names Robert Jenrick as pick for chancellor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Leader Nigel Farage says Reform is "the voice of opposition" to Labour, as he unveils his new top team.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe launches Restore Britain party

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The new party is set up by former Reform UK member, Rupert Lowe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Labour face tough fight in Gorton and Denton by-election

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Labour is in a tough fight with Reform UK and the Greens in previously safe seat Gorton and Denton.

# data[].attributes.headline
Starmer tries to restore control (13/2/26)

# data[].attributes.subject
Starmer tries to restore control (13/2/26)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where does Wormald sacking leave Sir Keir Starmer?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Is transplanting staff at the heart of government part of a bigger strategy - or a sticking plaster?

# data[].attributes.body
High Court challenges government

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Palestine Action ban ruled unlawful but group remains proscribed for now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It remains in place for now to allow further legal argument and the government to consider an appeal.

# data[].attributes.body
Allegations of misconduct

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reform faces police investigation over ‘concerned neighbour’ byelection letters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Material distributed in Gorton and Denton did not have legally required imprint stating it was funded by party

# data[].attributes.body
Education Committee puts pressure on government

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Increase and protect school funding for special needs, MPs urge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A cross-party group calls on the government to “align funding to need”, as ministers consider SEND reforms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Three things that could bring Starmer down - and what might save him

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sir Keir’s survival as Labour leader and prime minister hangs in the balance, writes Nick Eardley.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Party leader tells MPs that one-nation Tories doubting her rightward direction ‘need to get out of the way’

# data[].attributes.body
Example - Manifesto commitment

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ByJoshua Nevett, political reporter and Tarah Welsh, housing correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ground rents to be capped at £250 a year for leaseholders

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The reforms for England and Wales also include proposals to ban the sale of new leasehold flats.

# data[].attributes.body
Defections continue

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Suella Braverman: Another big beast defection shows momentum is with Reform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman is the fourth sitting Tory MP to join the party since the last election.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
With Suella Braverman’s defection to Reform, the Conservative party’s rejuvenation begins today | Justine Greening

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Without Braverman and Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch is free to return to the political mainstream, says former Conservative MP Justine Greening

# data[].attributes.body
Some postponements

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
ByJennifer McKiernan, Political reporter and Alex Forsyth, Political correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Twenty-nine English councils to delay elections, minister confirms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A major shake-up of local government is underway and postponing ballots is intended to help deliver that reorganisation.

# data[].attributes.body
Pressure from Conservatives

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kemi Badenoch has called on Keir Starmer to "just get on" with a ban on social media for under-16s, saying delay is a dereliction of duty that is harming children's mental health.

After the government said it would consult on a social media ban for under-16s by the summer, the Conservative party leader urged the prime minister to act more quickly, "however difficult to implement" it would be.

Badenoch's comments will add to pressure on the government as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill on Wednesday that would enact a ban within a year of it passing. The government is understood to want to wait to assess the evidence from Australia's ban, which came into force in December.

Writing in the Guardian, Badenoch said the UK was producing a generation of children who struggled to concentrate and had higher levels of anxiety because of exposure to social media.

Badenoch said limits on alcohol, the age of consent and safeguarding in schools were there to protect children while their brains were developing, but the government had "suspended that logic entirely" when it came to social media. "We will not be bought off with vague promises of a 'national conversation' about whether we should get children off these adult platforms," she said.

"The prime minister must set out how he will act and by when. The crossbench peer Baroness Kidron, who supports Conservative peer Lord Nash's amendment in the House of Lords, is right to say Starmer's approach 'is not leading; it is not governing'. He is 'doing nothing - slowly', which is 'the very epitome of party before country'.
Let's just get on with it."

She added: "Putting our children's mental health first is the right thing to do. How much longer will we have to wait until the government agrees?"

The Conservatives made no moves towards banning social media during their time in government, though the Online Safety Act placed more obligations on internet and social media providers to protect children from harmful content.

However, Badenoch said the consensus had shifted, with campaigners, clinicians, parents and experts now aligned against allowing under-16s access to social media. She also argued some internet restrictions for adults could be lifted if children were more protected from social media.

"By restricting social media use for children, we aren't just protecting children. We can also give more freedoms to adults online," she said. "We will no longer need to contort digital spaces to be universally 'child-friendly', or impose blanket restrictions on speech and content because children might see it. If we stop treating children like adults, we can stop treating adults like children, too."

She said her party believed in freedom but that the ability to make good choices was not yet fully formed in children, who did not have the necessary impulse control, emotional regulation and ability to assess risks.

On Sunday, the Guardian revealed that more than 60 Labour MPs have written to Starmer urging him to back a social media ban for under-16s, including select committee chairs, former frontbenchers and MPs from the right and left of the party.

In the letter, which was organised by Fred Thomas, the Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View, the MPs say: "Across our constituencies, we hear the same message: children are anxious, unhappy, and unable to focus on learning. They are not building the social skills needed to thrive, nor having the experiences that will prepare them for adulthood."

On Wednesday another letter from campaigners urged parliament to back a ban, with signatories including the actors Hugh Grant and Sophie Winkleman and Esther Ghey, the mother of Brianna Ghey, who was murdered by two teenagers in Warrington, Cheshire, in 2023. It said national polling by the charity Parentkind had found 93% of parents thought social media was harmful to children and young people.

It said: "No other amendment to the bill on this topic has the same cross-party support or would deliver promptly the change needed to get children off social media."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Badenoch tells Starmer to 'just get on' with under-16s social media ban

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tory leader says delay will harm children's mental health after No 10 said it would consult on policy by summer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
‘It feels like gruel’: Lib Dem MPs growing frustrated by Ed Davey approach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Exclusive: No move yet against leader but some say party ‘too academic at times’ and needs coherent national policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
EU diplomats holding crisis talks over Trump Greenland tariff ‘blackmail’

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Emmanuel Macron to urge EU to use its powerful anti-coercion instrument if US goes ahead with tariffs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reform is not rescue charity for panicky Tory MPs, Farage says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
He insists his party will not become “the Conservative Party 2.0” after Robert Jenrick’s defection.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
ByBecky Morton, political reporter, and Daniel De Simone , investigations correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Government pulls Hillsborough Law amendment after backlash

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It was facing a potential rebellion by some Labour MPs over how the law would apply to security services.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
ByAngus CochraneSenior political journalist, BBC Scotland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Scottish Budget: Income tax changes announced for 2026-27

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Finance Secretary Shona Robison unveils the government’s tax and spending plans for the coming financial year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Your Party hit by new split as Corbyn and Sultana battle for control

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The left wing party’s co-founders want to fill its ruling executive with their own allies in what insiders have described as a “proxy war”.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK to bring into force law this week to tackle Grok AI deepfakes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The technology secretary said it would be illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to make them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
ByJennifer McKiernan, Political reporter and Henry Zeffman, Chief political correspondent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Former Tory Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defects to Reform UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Zahawi, who was chancellor for two months when Boris Johnson was prime minister, is the latest former Tory MP to join Nigel Farage’s party.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Assisted dying campaigners request extra time for peers to scrutinise bill

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Concern is growing among supporters the bill won’t pass parliamentary hurdles in the allotted days.

# data[].attributes.body
4 defeats for the government

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Chagos deal suffers ‘humiliating’ defeats as government loses four votes

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Plans to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius will return to the Commons, after the House of Lords inflicted four defeats on the government.

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Sir John Curtice explains Reform and Greens threat to Labour in 2026

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Proposals for reform

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UK ministers urged to cap political donations to ‘rebuild voter confidence’

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Letter from 19 organisations says a cap would help to protect democracy, weeks after £9m donation to Reform UK

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Local councils overruled

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ByHelen Catt, Political correspondent and George Wright

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Councils warned against adopting four-day week

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Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has told council leaders to not introduce four-day working weeks.

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Lobbying example

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Government waters down farm inheritance tax plan

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The government has now said it will lift the intended threshold from £1m to £2.5m.

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Britons poorer than they were in 2019, as living standards continue to fall

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Disposable income is now more than £20 a month lower than it was six years ago after adjusting for inflation, according to new official figures.

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Limits to investigation

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Too late to investigate Farage election expenses, Essex Police say

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Allegations that Nigel Farage broke spending rules happened more than a year ago and can’t be probed, the force has said. Election financing crimes must be reported within a year

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Employment rights

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Flexible working and sick pay: What the new Employment Rights Bill means for you

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The flagship legislation has finally become law. Here’s a rundown of the key measures.

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Elections face further delays over councils shake-up

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The prospect of further suspensions to local polls has triggered a blame game between the parties.

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King's Speech planned for May 2026 - report

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Keir Starmer planning new king’s speech after May elections

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Timing seen as moment to reset after potential loss of hundreds of council seats in England and defeat in Wales and Scotland

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Labour’s employment rights bill set to become law after Lords battle

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Unions hail ‘generational shift’ as legislation introduces new rights on sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contracts

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Reform claims to now have more members than Labour

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Nigel Farage’s party says it has overtaken Labour to have more members than any other party in the UK.

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Updated

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Defending the move, Business Minister Baroness Lloyd said the current system incentivised claimants to allege discrimination, as this allowed uncapped compensation.

"These types of claims are more complex and take longer for the tribunal to handle," she said.

"Therefore, by our removing the compensation cap for ordinary unfair dismissal claims, this incentive will be lessened, making it easier for tribunals to reach a judgement more quickly and decreasing burdens on the system."

She said the government had "worked collaboratively with employers and trade unions to find a compromise" and called on peers to allow the bill to progress so workers could benefit from the reforms without any further delay.

However, the Federation of Small Businesses has expressed reservations about the plan, warning that unlimited settlements "would be difficult and further gum up tribunals".

"That was not a concession discussed with us or agreed by us in the negotiations," added executive director Craig Beaumont.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: "Continuing to vote down the Employment Rights Bill, a clear manifesto commitment, is undemocratic.

"This bill has been debated and scrutinised for months. Tory peers are actively defying the will of the British public and their own supporters who overwhelmingly support measures in this bill."

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Workers' rights bill standoff continues after latest Lords defeat

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It comes after ministers struck a deal between businesses and unions aimed at allowing the bill to progress.

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Keir Starmer appoints 25 Labour peers to strengthen support in House of Lords

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Party says appointments needed to balance upper house, choosing former advisers to No 10 and the chancellor

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New appointments???

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Keir Starmer expected to award 25 new Labour peerages

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Exclusive: Former union bosses and Labour staffers on list as prime minister aims to balance chamber

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Corbyn and Sultana will not lead new left-wing party

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Your Party delegates vote to be led by a panel of members - avoiding a potentially explosive leadership race.

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Labour MPs attack Starmer U-turn over workers’ rights as ‘complete betrayal’

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Former minister says ditching plan for day-one protection against unfair dismissal ‘definitely is a manifesto breach’

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Case study

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Global Counsel, the lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, was brought in to advise the Chinese pharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec in Europe months after it was targeted in a US national security crackdown.

WuXi AppTec signed a $3m contract with Global Counsel last year to deal with the international fallout from claims that it had links with the Chinese military and was implicated in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Global Counsel offered to help WuXi AppTec on "geopolitical risk mitigation" in May 2024, soon after the company was singled out in a US biosecurity bill over its alleged links to the Chinese government.

WuXi AppTec agreed to a contract with Global Counsel to soften the impact of the US crackdown on its global reputation, scrutiny of its operations and controls on its suppliers.

Global Counsel said it only works with Wuxi AppTec on European policy issues, not US ones, and has declared this on the EU's transparency register.

WuXi AppTec was one of a handful of Chinese biotech companies named in the draft bill as having ties to "a foreign adversary's military, internal security forces, or intelligence agencies" in January 2024.

In February 2024, a group of senators and congressmen wrote to several US government departments calling on them to investigate WuXi AppTec's ties to the Chinese Communist party and military.

Wuxi AppTec did not respond to several requests for comment from the Guardian. The company publicly refuted the claims against it last year, with its chair, Ge Li, signing an open letter in February 2024 pushing back on the "misguided" bill and rejecting "blanket allegations and preemptive actions" against it.

WuXi AppTec is one of several Chinese companies which have appeared on Global Counsel's client roster in recent years, with others including TikTok and Shein.

Global Counsel's client list and Mandelson's own ties to China came under scrutiny after he was appointed UK ambassador to Washington in February 2025. Critics of Beijing said his doveish stance and support for closer trade ties made him unsuitable for the role.

Mandelson was sacked in September having served just seven months as ambassador after disclosures were made about the extent of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Mandelson stepped down as chair of Global Counsel in May 2024 and stopped advising the business in December 2024. He retains a minority stake according to the latest company filings from October, but this has now been ringfenced and is in the process of being divested. It is understood that he has no role in the business and will play no role in the future.

Global Counsel's work with WuXi AppTec is led by its chief executive Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, a former Downing Street head of strategic communications under Tony Blair. Wegg-Prosser was reportedly approached by the UK government for the role of investment minister last year but turned it down.

The Biosecure Act proposed by US lawmakers last year sought to prevent "adversary biotech companies" from obtaining federal government funding.

Supporters of the legislation argued it was needed to keep American citizens' health data and genetic information safe from foreign adversaries and that it was dangerous for China to dominate the biotechnology supply chain.

WuXi AppTec's US and European president, Richard Connell, criticised the "unfounded allegations" against the company and said it was known for its "longstanding and strict adherence to US laws and regulations and respected security protocols".

In a LinkedIn post in May, he raised concerns about the bill's "broader impact on US leadership in biotechnology innovation".

The bill threatened WuXi AppTec business in the US, where it supplies key ingredients for a host of drugs and generates most of its revenue. It ultimately failed to pass through the Senate in 2024 after industry pushback.

A new version of the bill was endorsed by the US Senate last month, which adopted a softer tone and omitted any mention of WuXi companies.

Earlier this month, WuXi AppTec announced plans to set up its first European headquarters in Germany.

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Peter Mandelson's lobbying firm hired by company linked to Chinese military

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Global Counsel signed $3m contract with WuXi AppTec in Europe months after it was named in US national security drive

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BMA case study

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Wes Streeting has accused the British Medical Association (BMA) of being "impossible" and issuing "misleading" information in an escalation of tensions with the doctors union.

In an unusual move, the health secretary wrote on Thursday to England's 50,000 GPs to convey his frustration with the BMA over recent changes that from last month made it easier for patients to contact them online between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

He has underlined his concern about the union's behaviour by ending its longstanding role as the sole negotiator of the annual GP contract that covers doctors' pay and terms and conditions.

Streeting's letter was prompted by a recent speech by the head of the BMA's GP committee, Dr Katie Bramall, in which she accused ministers of being "traitors" to their profession and of betraying and lying to them.

In it, he referenced the speech that Bramall gave on 7 November to the annual conference of local medical committees - local groups of GPs - in England. She "accused the government of being 'traitors' to the profession and of 'disingenuousness', 'duplicity' and 'gaslighting'," Streeting wrote.

"This speech was not just deeply unprofessional and unbecoming of a professional representative body, it was misleading," he added. "The BMA agreed these contract changes [on online access to GPs] in February 2025 and any suggestions to the contrary are factually incorrect."

He said that the BMA was not displaying "mutual respect and professionalism" in its dealings with the government. "Your union representatives are currently making it impossible for me and my officials to engage in good faith in the way we would all want."

The relationship between Streeting and the BMA has become increasingly fractious, mainly over the long-running series of strikes by resident - formerly junior - doctors over their pay and difficulties getting places to start training in their chosen medical specialty.

Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, picket outside St Thomas' hospital in London this month. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

The union's resident doctors committee (RDC) is weighing up whether to stage another strike - which would be their 14th since March 2023 - before Christmas, given their legal strike mandate expires on 6 January.

Streeting said the BMA agreed to expand patients' digital access to GPs in the negotiations over this year's contract, which concluded in February. However, the union claims that he is guilty of "broken promises" for not putting in place safeguards to stop already busy GP practices becoming "overwhelmed" as a result of patients submitting requests for help online.

Responding to Streeting's letter, Bramall said a recent BMA survey had found that 42% of more than 1,300 practices that responded have had to reduce the number of face-to-face appointments they offer because GPs are so busy dealing with online communications.

"Fewer appointments and practice meltdown isn't a win for patients or the profession," she said.

Separately, Dr Tom Dolphin, the BMA's chair of council, criticised the health secretary for revealing the reduction in the union's role in drawing up the GP contract by publicising his letter.

"We would have much preferred the health secretary to contact the BMA privately and directly to seek de-escalation, rather than via the media. Governments do not get to decide their negotiating partners, and not should they," he said.

Streeting will consult other bodies, including the Royal College of GPs and the NHS Confederation, in his negotiations over the GP contract for 2026-27, to dilute the BMA's role.

The NHS England boss, Sir Jim Mackey, has urged the BMA to end the "doom loop" of strikes by resident doctors, especially during the winter, when the NHS comes under intense pressure.

The NHS and ministers are trying hard to end the standoff, which has seen what the BMA says is 20,000 doctors left unemployed and unable to progress their careers by securing places in specialty training, he said, in a letter to the RDC about the problem.

Each strike forces the NHS to prioritise safe care during the action and costs £250m, Mackey added. "Let's do everything we can to avert industrial action during winter, when our patients really rely on us being there for them," he said.

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Wes Streeting calls BMA 'impossible' and says they made 'misleading' claims

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Health secretary responds to speech given by GP committee leader accusing Labour of 'gaslighting' behaviour

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Government amends manifesto bill after delays

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ByHenry Zeffman, Chief political correspondent and Paul Seddon, Political reporter

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Labour ditches day-one protection from unfair dismissal in U-turn

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The right will now be introduced after six months, in a breach of Labour’s election manifesto.

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When is the Budget and what might be in it?

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering both tax rises and spending cuts in the 26 November Budget.

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‘I didn’t start it’: Starmer apologises for ‘six seven’ uproar during school visit

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Prime minister jokes that he may be ‘put in detention’ after appearing to encourage classroom hysterics

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David Lammy considers scrapping jury trials for all but the most serious cases

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Senior lawyers criticise justice secretary’s radical plan, saying it could ‘destroy justice as we know it’

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Two peers face suspension from House of Lords

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Former Army chief Lord Richard Dannatt and businessman Lord Evans of Watford face suspensions.

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Judge me at next election, Keir Starmer tells doubters

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The PM tells the BBC he has made “good steps” on the cost-of-living but it will take time to turn the country around.

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Daily Mail owner agrees to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m

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The publisher of the Daily Mail says it is in talks to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for £500m.

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MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul

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Exclusive: Courts minister says change needed to stop criminals opting for juries to delay cases, sometimes by years, and clear huge backlog